What’s on the Data Structure Costs poster
A 7-row table: Structure · Access · Search / Insert.
Average-case cost. Every structure trades one operation against another; none wins at everything.
- Array — O(1) — O(n) / O(n)
- Dynamic array — O(1) — O(n) / O(1)*
- Linked list — O(n) — O(n) / O(1)
- Hash table — — — O(1) / O(1)
- Binary search tree — O(log n) — O(log n) / O(log n)
- Heap — O(1) min — O(n) / O(log n)
- Stack / Queue — O(1) end — O(n) / O(1)
* Amortised: most appends are O(1), an occasional one resizes and costs O(n).
Questions about the Data Structure Costs poster
- What’s on the Data Structure Costs poster?
- A 7-row table: Structure · Access · Search / Insert. Average-case cost. Every structure trades one operation against another; none wins at everything. Array — O(1) — O(n) / O(n); Dynamic array — O(1) — O(n) / O(1)*; Linked list — O(n) — O(n) / O(1); Hash table — — — O(1) / O(1); Binary search tree — O(log n) — O(log n) / O(log n); Heap — O(1) min — O(n) / O(log n); Stack / Queue — O(1) end — O(n) / O(1). * Amortised: most appends are O(1), an occasional one resizes and costs O(n).
- Who is the Data Structure Costs poster for?
- Data Structure Costs belongs to the Computing section rather than to a school year, because computing is not something one grade owns. Anyone learning foundations can pin it up — a beginner, a student mid-course, or someone revising years later.
- When should you use the Data Structure Costs poster?
- Choose by the operation you do most. A structure that is fast at the wrong thing is a slow structure. A wall chart earns its place by being glanceable from where the work is happening, so Data Structure Costs belongs on the wall where that computing work actually happens, within glancing distance, rather than filed away.
- What other posters go with Data Structure Costs?
- Big-O Complexity, Binary, Hex & Decimal and Bits, Bytes & Sizes sit alongside Data Structure Costs in the Computing section. Printed together they make a wall rather than a single sheet, which is how a reference set actually gets used.Big-O ComplexityBinary, Hex & DecimalBits, Bytes & Sizes
- Is the Data Structure Costs poster free to download and print?
- Yes. Data Structure Costs downloads as a free PDF with no account, no email and no watermark, like everything else in the Computing section. Print as many copies as you like for a home, a classroom, a library or a tutoring group; reselling the file is the only thing the licence rules out.Read the licence
- What size does the Data Structure Costs poster print at?
- Data Structure Costs is a vector PDF laid out for US Letter, and prints on A4 with Fit to page — the same file, no separate download. Because every mark on it is drawn rather than photographed, it stays sharp enlarged to A3, A2 or A1 at a copy shop. Colour carries emphasis only, so a greyscale print of Data Structure Costs loses nothing.Printing guide
Related posters
Charts that sit alongside Data Structure Costs on the same wall.
Browse every Computing poster, or start from the full catalogue.